Letters (Aug. 13)

Let's call the new plaza Plaza de Las Cruces

When I read of the plaza naming considerations, my initial thought was Plaza de Las Cruces.

That is what it is. Also, it implies its location.

While I support the idea of a plaza, I am also aware that its success will depend on downtown development, including residential, commercial and visitors attractions. Of these, residential expansion may be the greatest driver.

Gordon Hill, Las Cruces

Stop wasting money on public bus service

Mr. County Commissioner,

Have you ever prepared a budget? From what I can see, I would say no, or you did it with a credit card! So whose credit card are you using to prepare this year's county budget?

Robin Hood's?

That's $134 million in income and $149 million outgoing, already wasting the largest tax increase in Doña Ana County history.

On to top of that, $750,000 for the Sharon Thomas Regional Bus Service? Have you seen how few people ride the city bus service? Half the time I see the city buses there is one person in the bus, and that is the driver. Maybe the city should get some Google buses, no driver! Then no one would be on the bus.

How about you and Thomas quit wasting taxpayers' hard-earned money, and you and her open up your own Uber county transportation services and enjoy your retirement.

Maybe the two of you can also open up a bike repair service so you will have something to do when your County Uber service fails.

David T. Merry, Las Cruces

TV show to focus on declining middle class

Until the early 1970s, the output of goods and services per hours worked (productivity) and wages grew in tandem. Between 1973 and 2013, productivity grew by 74 percent while worker compensation grew by only 9 percent. What happened?

According to Jan Rivkin, business economist at Harvard:

• An underlying shift in geopolitics and technology opened the world for business, weakening the connections between companies and their communities, i.e. "commons." The middle class (75 percent identified themselves as middle class) found itself under intense pressure as individuals suddenly were in competition with millions of skilled and unskilled workers around the world.

• Systematic under-investment by multinational corporations in the commons — shared resources every business needs to be productive such as an educated populace, pools of skilled labor, a vibrant network of suppliers, strong infrastructure, basic R&D, etc.

• A multitude of regulations and deregulation of banks, financial institutions and corporations by Congress without any follow through of punishment for disregarding the laws.

"A complex financial world will be made less fragile only by simplicity of regulations and strength of enforcement," Niall Ferguson wrote in "The Great Degeneration."

Please join and participate in a discussion about "The Disappearing Middle Class" to be held from 12:45 to 2 p.m. today at the KRWG studio on the New Mexico State University campus. Fred Martino will moderate distinguished guests Steve Fischmann, former state senator and co-chair New Mexico Fair Lending Coalition, and Paul Gessing, president of the Rio Grande Foundation.

Lee Kershner, member, Citizen WatchGroup, Las Cruces

Errors made in teacher's evaluation by PED

I am an elementary art teacher in Las Cruces, and I would like to share my evaluation story with the public.

I was given an evaluation of "minimally effective" in June of this year. The data used for my evaluation was flawed. It contains two errors and one deduction of points for attendance. Under the heading Student Achievement, I was given 39.15 points out of 100 for DIBELS scores. This is incorrect because I have not given any students a DIBELS test.

I was put into a wrong category, Group C for teachers of kindergarten, first and second grades, when I should have been in group B, "teachers who teach grades and/or subjects that cannot be meaningfully linked to the SBA." There is no mention of data from the End of Course exam I gave students in 2014.

My 3.5 absences for the year were below average for my school, the district and the state. At the time of my evaluation, I had accrued over 600 hours of sick leave, so I think that speaks for itself about my attendance.

My administrators scored my performance in the classroom as effective, and some areas as highly effective. I taught in a school that has a 75 percent or higher poverty rate, so math and English language arts scores were low, and in addition, I don't know which students were selected to contribute to my evaluation, or how they were selected. I signed my evaluation and included a letter with it to the Public Education Department of New Mexico pointing out the errors. I have not yet received an answer or acknowledgement.